Graphic Novel about The Turk Chess Automaton

Clockwork Game is a graphic dramatization of the historical events surrounding one of the famous automata known as The Turk. Constructed by Hungarian nobleman Wolfgang von Kempelen, The Turk amazed audiences for decades on several continents by playing (and besting) many human competitors at the game of chess. Or, did it...?

Written and illustrated by Jane Irwin, a new installment of Clockwork Game is available every Thursday. Not only is this true story captivating, it is well-illustrated in a crosshatched pen-and-ink style. The graphic novel will ultimately be available in many formats including print.

The Clockwork Game web site has a wealth of great information about The Turk.

Here's were you can start to read Clockwork Game from the beginning.

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Mechanical Toys: How Toys & Automata Work

Here's a good book for you: Mechanical Toys: How Old Toys Work, by Athelstan and Kathleen Spilhaus (New York: Crown Publishers Inc., 1989).

The line between automata and toys has never been clear, but the principles of engineering that animate them have always been the same. This book explores how mechanical toys work.

The chapters survey the history of toys, material types, methods of construction, sound producing devices, and energy delivery systems. While not overly detailed in its technical descriptions, the reader gets a chance to see many black-and-white and color photographs of exposed toy and automata mechanisms.

Keep an eye out for this one. You may be able to get Mechanical Toys: How Old Toys Work second-hand at a book sale or at Amazon.

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Coin-Op Fortune Teller Automaton with Film Strip

This coin-operated fortune teller automaton seems to have used a film strip to show a fortune in the "crystal" ball.

My guess is that the mechanism used a Geneva wheel to advance the film one (or some other odd number) of frames. When the film was in place, a small light bulb would probably have lit for a few moments, allowing the viewer to read their fortune.

Here's a tantalizing view of the actual mechanism:
You can see the old battery in the lower right. Hey...are those thread spools on which the film sat? I would love to get a chance to fix this piece up.

Here's the listing on eBay for the fortune teller automaton with answer strip and coin mechanism.

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